Pasta with pesto, Road Trip Cooking: The Best Recipes for Your Campfire, Stove or Barbecue by Arno & Mireille van Elst. Photography by Liesbeth Disbergen, Simone van Rees and Mireille van Elst.
Road trips are the ultimate freedom: long roads, beautiful vistas, good conversations and singing along with the radio.
And when you choose to stop somewhere out in nature, you’ll want something tasty and nutritious to cook on your camping stove, campfire or portable barbecue. In Road Trip Cooking, Arno and Mireille of the Holy Kauw Company in the Netherlands take you along in their campervan. Their motto is simple: cooking and eating well is possible anytime, anywhere.
All recipes in this cookbook are simple to prepare and don’t require a well-equipped kitchen or well-stocked supermarket nearby. From the ultimate hangover breakfast and salad in a jar to campfire nachos and ‘apple pie to go’, these recipes make the most of classic and comfort-food dishes from around the world. Yet they only require some wood blocks, a few ingredients and a box of matches to prepare.
Also included is information on outdoor cooking techniques and recommended road-trip life hacks.
Arno and Mireille hope their book will make outdoor cooking even more fun than it already is. Let the journey begin!
Road Trip Cooking: The Best Recipes for Your Campfire, Stove or Barbecue is available at Amazon.com and Indigo.ca.
Pasta with pesto
EASY FOR ON THE WAY
Fire
Preparation is less than ½ hour
Serves 4 dinner
At home, we’ve always got a fresh jar of pesto ready. We use it almost daily as a dip, with pasta or on bread. This pre-made pesto is a great alternative for on the road when you don’t have a food processor.
INGREDIENTS
250 g (6 oz / 1-1/3 cups) pasta
300 g (10½ oz / 2 cups) peas, blanched
100 g (3½ oz / ½ cup) fresh basil, roughly torn
60 g (2 oz / ½ cup) grated parmesan cheese
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
drizzle of good olive oil
juice of ½ a lemon
salt and pepper
50 g (1¾ oz / ¼ cup) pine nuts, toasted
250 g (6 oz / 1-1⁄5 cups) sweet vine-ripened cocktail tomatoes, roasted on the barbecue (optional)
METHOD
Cook the pasta al dente according to packet instructions.
Stir the parmesan cheese (keep some for later), peas, garlic and basil (keep some aside as well) in with the pasta.
Drizzle some oil and lemon juice to taste and season with salt and pepper. Toss the pasta while warm.
Divide the pasta into bowls and garnish with the leftover basil and parmesan, and add the toasted pine nuts and cocktail tomatoes. Too easy!
Make an extra quantity; this pasta is also nice when served cold. Great for lunch when you’re on the go.
Recipe reprinted with permission from Hardie Grant Books.